Transposition fitting



April 1966 H. M. MAIN ETAL 3,244,793

TRANSPOSITION FITTING Filed July 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 figws w April 5, 1966 H. M. MAIN ETAL 3,244,793

TRANSPOSITION FITTING Filed July 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,244,793 TRANfiPOSITION FITTING Harold M. Main, Muncie, Amos 0. Sandoe, Selma, and

Alvin W. Holmes, Muncie, Ind, assignors to Indiana Steel & Wire ornpany, Ina, Muncie, Ind, a corporation of Indiana Filed July 12, 1965, Ser. No. 471,078 12 Claims. (Cl. 17433) This invention relates to the transportation of spaced, paired conductors in an overhead electrical transmission line. It has heretofore been proposed, in prior US. Patent No. 3,188,376 to H. L, Kitselman, to effect the trans position of paired conductors through the use of a fitting comprising a pair of heads mounted for relative rotation on and near the ends of an elongated rod, each head being grooved at its ends to receive the conductors to be transposed. With the heads in coplanar relationship and the paired, tensioned conductors received in such grooves,

the heads were rotated relatively on the rod through an angle of 180 to cross the conductors, and both heads were then secured to the rod to prevent their reverse rotation under the influence of tension in the conductors.

At relatively small conductonspacings, say four inches or so, and in general wherever the head-rotating eifect of conductor-tension is not too great, the fitting of the aforesaid prior patent has proven satisfactory in use. It has been found, however, that at conductor spacings of eight inches or more, a rod capable of satisfactorily resisting the head-rotating effect of conductor-tension will be so heavy that the fitting may be unsuitable for many mid-span applications. It is accordingly an object of this invention to produce a transposition fitting which, without being objectionably heavy, may be used to effect the transposition of relatively widely spaced paired conductors in an overhead transmission line.

In accordance with this invention, the paired conductors are held crossed between two relatively rotatable heads, and crossing of the conductors is effected by rotating the heads relatively to each other, as in the prior patent above mentioned. The present invention, however, dilfers from that of the prior patent in that the heads are mounted on and interconnected by two elongated rods instead of but one, the ends of such rods being disposed in spaced relation in each head, with the result that relative rotation of the heads through an angle of 180 involves a crossing or an uncrossing of the intermediate portions of the rods. In the preferred arrangement, the rods are the parallel legs of a U-shaped yoke and are slidably received in coplanar openings in the heads, the material of which the yoke is formed being suificiently elastically deformable to permit the heads to be rotated through an angle of 180 to bring the heads into coplanar relationship with the yoke-legs crossed. In that condition, the fitting is applied between the tensioned conductors, which are received between bosses provided on the opposite ends of the heads. The heads are then rotated relatively in the reverse direction to restore the rods to parallelism and cross the conductors. To maintain the crossed condition of the conductors, the free ends of the yoke-legs constituting the rods are bent to extend toward each other for reception in a groove provided in the adjacent head.

Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description and from the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the fitting as manufactured;

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the fitting as applied to the conductors which are to be transposed;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view showing the condition existing at an intermediate point in the transposing operation;

FIG. 4 is an isometric view showing the fitting at the conclusion of the transposing operation;

FIG. 5 is a fragmental side elevation of the fitting in the condition existing after the transposition has been effected, and

FIG. 6 is a plan view of one of the fitting-heads with a portion thereof broken away and shown in section.

The particular form of fitting shown in the drawings comprises a pair of parallel rods 10 and 12 which support in spaced relation a pair of heads 13 and 14. Conveniently, the two rods 10 and 12 are the parallel legs of a U- shaped yoke having an intermediate leg 11 (FIG, 6). The head 13 is seated in the bight of the yoke, and the yoke-legs extend from the head 13 through and beyond the head 14, where their ends 15 and 16 are bent at right angles to extend generally toward each other and retain the head 14 on the yoke.

Desirably, the two heads are identical, and it will there fore be necessary to describe only one of them. In such description, for convenience, the adjacent, opposed faces of the heads will be referred to as inner faces, while the remote faces will be referred to as outer faces. The heads are desirably formed of insulating material; and in its outer face, each head is provided with a longitudinally extending groove 18 from the ends of which openings 20 and 22 extend through the head for reception of the yokelegs 10 and 12.

At diagonally opposite corners the outer portion of each head is provided with a first pair of bosses 23, while the inner portion of each head is provided at diagonally opposite'corners with a second pair of bosses 24, the two bosses 23 and 24 at each end of each head being located diagonally opposite each other and spaced apart to provide for the reception of a conductor between them. Inwardly of the fitting beyond the bosses 23, the end faces 25 of each head converge, as shown in FIG. 6. At its inner face, each head is provided with a skirt 26 which surrounds and is spaced from the rods 10 and 12. In addition, each head is provided with a central opening 27 extending through it perpendicular to the plane of the head.

In assembling the fitting, the two heads 13 and 14 are applied to the rods 10 and 12 before the rod-ends 15 and 16 have been bent as shown in FIG. 1. The head 13 is seated in the bight of the yoke 1041-12 with the intermediate yoke-leg received in the groove 18. After the head 14 has been applied to the rod, the rod-ends 15 and 16 are bent as previously described, thus retaining both heads in association with the rods.

When a fitting as shown in FIG. 1 is to be used, the head 14 is slid along the rods 10 and 12, if necessary, to free the in-bent rod-ends 15 and 16 from the groove 18, and the heads are rotated relatively through an angle of 180 to bring the fitting into the condition illustrated in FIG. 2. The fitting is then applied between two parallel, tensioned conductors 30 and 31 which are to be transposed. As shown, over the extent associated with the fitting, each of the conductors is provided with a protective sheath 32, which may be of the general type shown and described in US. Patent No. 2,275,019 to Peterson, but such sheaths form no part of the present invention and may be omitted if desired. When the fitting is applied to the conductors 30 and 31, one of the bosses 23 on each head will overlie one of the conductors while the other boss 23 will underlie the other conductor, each conductor lying above a boss 23 on one head and below a boss 23 on the other head, all as will be clear from FIG, 2. Conveniently, the bosses 24 are shorter than the bosses 23, so that they may lie in the common plane of the conductors 30 and 31 rather than above or below them.

In rotating the heads relatively to bring the fitting into the condition shown in FIG. 2, the rods 10 and 12 will be Q) r; crossed with the result that the rod-ends 15 and 16, in-

stead of extending toward each other, project away from each other. Desirably, these rod ends are not long enough to engage and become fouled with the conductors.

After the heads have been rotated relatively and the fitting applied to the conductors as shown in FIG. 2, the heads are then rotated in the opposite direction through 180 to bring them into their original relationship, uncross the rods 10 and 12, and cross the conductors 31 and 32. An intermediate stage of such reverse rotation is illustrated in FIG. 3. As the reverse rotation of the heads is opposed by tension in the conductors, restoring the fitting to its initial condition involves the application of considerable effort, which can be appliedthrough the medium of rods 35 and 36 inserted in the openings 27. It is assumed in FIGS, 2, 3 and 4 that the conductors 31 and 32 are being strung from left to right and that, to the left of the fitting, the conductors 30 and 31 will retain their original relation while, to the right of the fitting, they will be transposed. Hence, in effecting the trans position of the conductors, the head 13 remains stationary while the head 14 is rotated.

After the transposition has been effected, the head 14 is moved away from the head 13 to seat the bent rod-ends 15 and 16 in the groove 18 of the head 14, as shown in FIG. 4. This operation serves to prevent rotation of the rods 10 and 12 in the head 14 and, since the rods are nonrotatable in the head 13, holds the heads in fixed relationship against the head-rotating effect imposed on them by tension in the conductors.

The material of which the yoke 149-1142 is formed is sufiiciently elastic to permit the head-rotations above described without producing any permanent deformation of the rods 10 and 12. At the same time, the rods must possess sufiicient rigidity to resist the head-rotating effect of tension in the transposed conductors. That tension will apply torsional stresses to the rods, and under those stresses the rods will yield to some extent in torsion. If, with the rods unstressed, the rod-ends 15 and 16 were coplanar with each other, tension in the conductors would displace the two heads from the most desirable coplanar relation; but if, as shown in FIG, 1, the unstressed rodends lie at an acute angle to the common plane of the rods 10 and 12, conductor-transposing rotation of the head 14 will have to be carried through somewhat more than 180 to permit the rod ends to be received in the slot 18 of the head 14, so that when the rod-ends are seated in the slot and the head-rotating effort applied through the operating rods 35 and 3-6 is relieved, tension in the conductors will twist the rods 10 and 12 to create the desired coplanar relationship of the heads, in which the head-rotating effect of conductor-tension is balanced by torsional stresses in the rods.

A fitting which has been successfully used in transposing conductors spaced eight inches apart has an overall length of approximately 19 inches and has employed a yoke 1tl1112 made of A inch spring wire with the unstressed rod-ends 15 and 16 lying at an angle of about to the common plane of the unstressed rods and 12.

It will be apparent from FIG. 2 and from the chain-line showing of the rods in FIG. 6 that relative rotation of the heads 13 and 14 involves bending of the rods. Both the unit deformation incident to such bending and the headrotating effort required to effect the bending can be reduced by appropriately relieving the adjacent walls of the head-openings 20 and 22, as indicated in FIG. 6, so that at the inner faces of the heads such openings are elongated. The object of such relief is to permit the bending of the rods to be distributed over the entire length thereof rather than only over those portions of the rods which extend between the inner faces of the heads. Except for such relief, however, the openings 2% and 22 desirably receive the rods rather snugly in order to reduce lost motion and enable the rods to control the relative position of the heads.

As will be apparent from FIGS, 4 and 5, the elevations of the crossing portions of the transposed conductors will be determined by the bosses 24, which are desirably so located on the heads that the crossing portions of the conductors are vertically spaced from the rods 10 and 12. The skirt 26, which surrounds the rods 10 and 12 in spaced relation thereto serves the purpose of increasing the length of the path over the surface of the heads between the conductors and the rods 10 and 12, which will ordinarily be electrically conductive.

In order to reduce the overall thickness of each head while still maintaining the bosses 23 and 24 of adequate strength, the bosses at each end of each head are desirably located, as will be clear from FIG. 5, so that the conductor passing between them is deflected. Making the bosses 24 short enough to be received between the conductors in the initial application of the fitting thereto makes it possible to effect such application without the necessity of deflecting the tensioned conductors in the manner which would be necessary if, initially, they were required to pass between the bosses 23 and 24. It is not until the heads are rotated from the FIG. 2 position to the FIG. 4 position and the conductors become crossed that the bosses 24 play any part in locating the conductors.

It will be apparent that the particular fitting illustrated in the drawings and above described must be designed with reference to the direction in which the head 14 is to be rotated in transposing the conductors. Specifically, since transposition of the conductors by use of the fitting described involves a clockwise rotation of the head 14, the conductor-engaging faces of the bosses 23 must face in the clockwise direction relative to the longitudinal axis of the fitting as a whole. For the same reason, the sense in which the bent ro -ends l5 and 16 depart from the common plane of the rods 10 and 12 must be such that a counter-clockwise rotation of each would be necessary to bring them into a common plane, that of the slot 13.

Although the drawings show the fitting as applied to the conductors in mid-span, it should be noted that the fitting could be applied at a point where the conductors are supported, in which event one or both of the openings 27 in the heads might provide for the reception of means for attaching the fitting to an appropriate support. It is also to be noted that the invention is not limited to a titting in which the rods 10 and 12, when unstressed, lie parallel to each other, although such an arrangement is preferred.

We claim:

1. A transposition fitting for use in transposing spaced, paired electrical conductors, comprising a pair of spaced, parallel rods, a first head in which said rods are nonrotatably received, said first head being adapted to extend between the conductors and having at each end outwardly projecting bosses between which a conductor may be received, a second head provided with spaced openings rotatably receiving said rods respectively, said second head being spaced from the first head along the rods and having at each end outwardly projecting bosses between which a conductor may be received, said rods being sufficiently elastically deformable to permit relative rotation of the heads through an angle of approximately whereby, with the heads so rotated to effect crossing of the rods, the fitting can be disposed between two parallel, tensioned conductors received between said bosses and the heads then relatively rotated in the reverse direction into substantially coplanar relationship to restore the rods to parallelism and transpose the conductors, and means for securing the rods against rotation in the second head after such transposition has been effected.

2. A transposition fitting according to claim it wherein said rods project through and beyond said second head and have their projecting ends bent to extend toward each other in parallel relation, and second head being slidable on said rods and having a groove engageable with and disengageable from each bent rod-end by movement of the head along the rods.

3. A transposition fitting according to claim 2 wherein said bent rod-ends are disposed at an acute angle to the plane of the rods when the rods are unstressed.

4. A transposition fitting according to claim 1 wherein said bosses are so disposed on the heads that, after the conductors have been transposed, both conductors will be spaced from the rods.

5. A transposition fitting according to claim 1 wherein said rods are parallel stretches of a U-shaped yoke in the bight of which said first head is seated.

6. A transposition fitting according to claim 1 wherein said heads are formed of electrically insulating material and provided on their adjacent faces with skirts which project toward each other and surround the rods in spaced relation thereto.

7. A transposition fitting according to claim 1 wherein said heads are formed of electrically insulating material.

8. In combination with a pair of spaced, crossed electrical conductors maintained under tension, a pair of substantially coplanar heads extending between and receiving said conductors on opposite sides of their point of crossing, and a pair of elastically deformable rods extending between and nonrotatably connected to said heads, said rods being stressed in torsion to maintain the heads in their substantially coplanar relationship against the head rotating effect imposed on the heads by tension in the Wires.

9. The invention of claim 8 with the addition that said heads are provided at their ends with conductor-engaging elements maintaining the crossed conductors in spaced relation to the rods.

10. A transposition fitting for use in transposing spaced, paired electrical conductors, comprising a first head adapted to extend between said conductors and having at each end outwardly projecting bosses between which a conductor may be received, a pair of elongated rods mounted in spaced relation in said first head and projecting in the same direction therefrom, a second head having spaced openings rotatably receiving said rods respectively, said second head having at each end outwardly projecting bosses adapted to receive a conductor between them, said rods being sufiiciently elastically deformable to permit relative rotation of the heads through an angle of approximately whereby, with the heads rotated into sub stantiaily coplanar relationship to stress the rods, the fitting can be disposed between two parallel, tensioned conductors received between said bosses and the heads then rotated relatively through an angle of approximately 180 in a direction to relieve stress in the rods and thus transpose the conductors, and means for securing the rods against rotation in the second head after such transposition has been eifected.

11. A transposition fitting as set forth in claim 16 further characterized in that said rods project through and beyond said second head and have their projecting ends bent to project transversely of the rods, said second head being longitudinally slidable on the rods and being provided with a groove engageable with and disengagcable from said bent rod-ends by movement of the head along the rods.

12. A transposition fitting as set forth in claim 10 further characterized in that said bosses are so located that, after the transposition, both conductors will be spaced from the rods.

No references cited.

ROBERT K. SCHAEFER, Acting Primary Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 5,244,793 April 5, 1966 Harold M, Main et a1.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

In the grant, lines 3 and 4, for "assignors to Indiana Steel 5 Wire Company, Inc. of Muncie, Indiana, a corporation of Indiana," read assignors to General Cable Corporation, a corporation of New Jersey, line 13, for "Indiana Steel G Wire Company, Inc.," read General Cable Corporation,

in the heading to the printed specification, lines 4 to 6, for "assignors to Indiana Steel 5 Wire Company, Inc., Muncie, Ind., a corporation of Indiana" read assignors to General Cable Corporation, a corporation of New Jersey Signed and sealed this 7th day of November 1967.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A TRANSPOSITION FITTING FOR USE IN TRANSPOSING SPACED, PAIRED ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS, COMPRISING A PAIR OF SPACED, PARALLEL RODS, A FIRST HEAD IN WHICH SAID RODS ARE NONROTATABLY RECEIVED, SAID FIRST HEAD BEING ADAPTED TO EXTEND BETWEEN THE CONDUCTORS AND HAVING AT EACH END OUTWARDLY PROJECTING BOSSES BETWEEN WHICH A CONDUCTOR MAY BE RECEIVED, A SECOND HEAD PROVIDED WITH SPACED OPENINGS ROTATABLY RECEIVING SAID RODS RESPECTIVELY, SAID SECOND HEAD BEING SPACED FROM THE FIRST HEAD ALONG THE RODS AND HAVING AT EACH END OUTWARDLY PROJECTING BOSSES BETWEEN WHICH A CONDUCTOR MAY BE RECEIVED, SAID RODS BEING SUFFICIENTLY ELASTICALLY DEFORMABLE TO PERMIT RELATIVE ROTATION OF THE HEADS THROUGH AN ANGLE OF APPROXIMATELY 180*, WHEREBY, WITH THE HEADS SO ROTATED TO EFFECT CROSSING OF THE RODS, THE FITTING CAN BE DISPOSED BETWEEN TWO PARALLEL, TENSIONED CONDUCTORS RECEIVED BETWEEN SAID BOSSES AND THE HEADS THEN RELATIVELY ROTATED IN THE REVERSE DIRECTION INTO SUBSTANTIALLY COPLANAR RELATIONSHIP TO RESTORE THE RODS TO PARALLELISM AND TRANSPOSE THE CONDUCTORS, AND MEANS FOR SECURING THE RODS AGAINST ROTATION IN THE SECOND HEAD AFTER SUCH TRANSPOSITION HAS BEEN EFFECTED. 